Read a full match report of the Europa League second-leg game between Rangers
and PSV Eindhoven at Ibrox on Thursday March 17, 2011, kick-off 20.05 GMT.

Beaten by a goal of considerable quality but denied a clear penalty kick – which should have seen Atiba Hutchinson sent off for handling on the line and denying a clear scoring opportunity – Rangers tumbled out of the Europa League one stage short of the quarter-finals at Ibrox on Thursday night.

The evening was Walter Smith’s last at this level as Rangers manager and the result also meant that PSV Eindhoven – whose progress was guaranteed by Jeremain Lens’ early strike – at last registered a win over a Scottish side at the eighth attempt.

The Rangers line-up would have raised eyebrows had the eyes not already been partly focused on Sunday’s Co-operative Insurance Cup final meeting with Celtic at Hampden Park.

Neil Alexander was in goal again to give him action before the weekend engagement and Sasa Papac was back in his customary left-back berth.

Gregg Wylde had the home crowd in full voice when his first contribution was a forcing surge along the left flank that produced a splendid curling ball which Steven Whittaker attacked only to be penalised for a foul on Eric Pieters.

When the presence of Maurice Edu seemed to trigger a bout of jitters in Marcelo soon afterwards, the feeling became widespread that it would be only a matter of time until Rangers got their breakthrough.

So much for wishful thinking. Instead, it was PSV who began to assemble a passing rhythm and who increasingly looked composed in possession, a craft at which they proved adept to a fault after 13 minutes to score the away goal Rangers had feared.

The decisive move flowed the length of the pitch along the PSV left where Pieters strode forward to pitch a perfect pass into the path of Balazs Dzsudzsak.

The Hungarian was equally efficient at switching the ball to the six yard box where Lens met it with a simple low drive beyond Alexander.

The impact of the blow on Rangers was palpable. Caught in two minds between their desire to respond and the ingrained habit of sitting tight and waiting for the chance to hit on the break, they did neither.

The consequence was to allow PSV to play keep ball to the fury of the Rangers fans who were not appeased when their team did force a series of free kicks towards the break, but to no effect whatsoever.

For the restart Smith withdrew David Weir and replaced the captain with Steven Naismith, to immediate effect as Rangers enjoyed their best spell of the contest.

Wylde, at last fed with supply of quality equal to his pace, ran Abel Tamata ragged. A series of corner kicks ensued, as did a flashpoint.

When another of Wylde’s fine deliveries perplexed the Dutch defence, Naismith propelled a header off the crossbar and the rebound fell to Edu, whose prodded effort was blatantly handled off the line by Hutchinson.

It should have been a straight red card and a penalty kick to Rangers.

Instead, the referee saw nothing and his two assistants – including the gent stationed behind the goal in case of exactly such eventualities – were equally myopic, to the irate disbelief of the Scottish champions and their incensed following.

To make matters worse for Rangers Kyle Lafferty fell awkwardly and had to be carried off with an injury that seems certain to rule him out of Sunday’s derby, as Smith and his players turn their attention to the domestic matters which are all that remain for him and them.